CHAPTER 8

THE RISE OF ISLAM

Islam Muslims are strict

monotheists. They believe in the Judeo-

Christian God, which they call Allah.

Muslims believe that the Torah and the Bible, like the Qur’an, is the word of God. People of the book

5 Pillars of Islam State that

Allah is the only God

Pray 5 times a day facing Mecca

Alms – give charity

Fast for the month of Ramadan

Once take Pilgrimage to Mecca

1 2 3 4 5

Mecca

Mecca was a caravan city that attracted nomads to worship the idols enshrined in a small cubical shrine called the Ka’ba.

The message of Muhammad's revelations is that there is one god, Allah, and that all people ought to submit to him. At the final judgment, those who had submitted to Allah would go to paradise; those who didn’t, to hell.

Muhammad's revelations were considered to be the final revelations, following and superseding the earlier revelations of God to Noah, Moses and Jesus.

Message of Muhammad

"Muhammad“ styled Islamic

calligraphy.

Followers His Meccan followers and

converts from Medina formed a single community of believers, the umma.

The developed into the core of the Islamic state that would later expand to include all of the Arabia and lands beyond in Africa, Europe and the Middle-east.

What is an Arab? The term Arab "may be used in several

different senses at one and the same time, and that a standard general definition of its content has rarely been possible.“

The easiest definition is to say that an Arab is simply someone who speaks Arabic. But that's not satisfactory. Not all Arabic-speaking peoples identify themselves as Arabs.

Kaaba – “cube” shrine to god Allah

Muhammad & the Koran

Like the Buddha and Jesus, Muhammad was a teacher who spoke rather than wrote his message, also like Buddhism and Christianity, following its Messenger’s death, Islam quickly became a religious culture centered on a body of sacred texts, and it remained so to the present.

Islam’s text without equal is the Koran (the Recitations), which Muslims believe contains, word for word, absolutely everything that God reveled to Muhammad. As the full and final revelations of God, the Koran encompasses all that any human needs to know.

Its verses, each poetically perfect proclamation from heaven, are both doctrine and law, governing essentially every aspect of a Muslim’s life.

Along with spreading Islam it helped to spread Arabic language

Reasons for Islam’s success

Easy to learn and practice. No priesthood. Teaches equality. Non-Muslims, who were “Peoples

of the Book,” were allowed religious freedom, but paid additional taxes.

Easily “portable” nomads & trade routes.

Jihad (“Holy War”) against pagans and other non-believers (“infidels”).

Dome of the Rock

Dome & the Western Wall

Upon Muhammad's death Abu Bakr became the first Muslim ruler (632–634

Abu Bakr faced to main tasks: standardization of the Islamic religion and consolidation of the Islamic state.

Abu Bakr successfully re-established the Muslim authority over the Arabs and oversaw the compilation and organization of the Quran in book form.

Succession to the prophet

Disagreements over the question of succession to the caliphate emerged after the assassination of the third caliph.

Civil war between those who supported keeping the caliphate in the clan (the Ummayad) and those who supported the claim of Muhammad’s first cousin and son-in-law Ali. The Umayyad forces won and established the Umayyad caliphate in 661.

Shi’ites supported Ali’s claim of the caliphate and believed the position of caliph belonged to the descendants of Ali. Those known as the Sunnis believed that the first three caliphs had been correctly chosen and supported the Umayyad Caliphate.

Schism

Sunni Shi’ite• The killing of Ali’s nephew by the Caliphate marked the dramatic

split between the two still seen today

uS nniummauComm nity

• “Tradition” of the Community• Leaders should be chosen by the

community• 90% population today

iSh ‘iteiAliFam ly

• “Party of Ali” • Believe only direct descendants of Ali • Believe Caliph is more of a religious than

secular leader• 10% population today

Islam’s Distribution

In Iran and Azerbaijan, Shiite Muslims are in the majority.

There are also many Shiites in Afghanistan and Iraq

Dar al-Islam

Christianity

Islam

Buddhism

Hinduism

Shinto

Umayyad Dynasty

Umayyad Dynasty

Roller coaster of conquestLarger than RomeArabic dynasty which converted to

Islam – this Arabic empire ruled over mostly non Muslim peoples

Explanations for Muslim advance: Lust for treasure Religious conversions Weakness of foes Talent of leaders Structure of society

MedicineDoctors

performing bone setting

Abbasid– 2nd great dynasty of

Islam

Abbasid Capital city of Baghdad Renewed religious

leadership Founded on family lines of

Muhammad Wealthy and powerful due

to center of trade Cosmopolitan court, wide

trade networks “Golden Age” of Islam Conversion of non-

Muslims accelerated

World of 1001 NightsHarun al-Rashid (r. 763-

809) Greatest of Abbasid

caliphsSponsored learning,

culture Literature Science Philosophy Translations from Greek,

Persian No conflict between

science and religion like seen at the West as this time

Abbasid decline:

Difficulty of transportation and communications

Dissatisfactions of Muslims politically

Economically centered in Baghdad

945 the caliphate fell and Islamic, Roman, German, and Jewish cultures combined to form Iberian variant of Islamic civilization in Spain.

Nomads like the, Seljuk Turks, took advantage of Abbasid decline as well.

Crusades put pressure on Islamic lands. Muslims united under Saladin but descendants failed to restore unity and order.

Islamic Civilization

Islamic law—Shari’a—evolved over time in response to the Muslim community’s need for a legal system. The most important source of law was the traditions of the Prophet as revealed in reports (hadith) about his words or deeds.

Specialists on Islamic law collected thousands of hadith. The Shari’a held that all Muslims are brothers and sisters and shared the same moral values.

Islamic Civilization

Like the Jewish Torah, the Koran provides its believers with the total way of life.

The dichotomy between Church and state that the European West developed has no meaning in Islam, at least as it emerged in the seventeenth century.

Islam has no church in the Christian sense, and it has no separate secular polity. In the ideal, there is only Gods umma, which is governed by God’s Holy Law, or Shari’a

The study and application of Shari’a is one of the highest calling in Islamic life and stands at the center of civilization.

Converts and Cities Conversion and urbanization were

related. During the early period of Islamic expansion, converts to Islam needed to learn about their new religion and found that the best way to do so was to move to the urban areas where the Muslim population was concentrated.

Urban social life and the practice of Islam itself was varied because the Muslims had no central authority to prescribe religious dogma.

Muslim scholars built on and surpassed the work of the Greek and Hellenistic civilizations and developed skills and theories far more sophisticated than those of Christian Europe.

Women and Slaves Muslim women were veiled and secluded as

they had been previously in the Byzantine and the Sasanid Empires.

Muslim women did have rights under Islamic law. These rights included the right to own property and to retain it in marriage, the right to divorce, the right to remarry, to testify in court, and to go on pilgrimage

Stories about Muhammad’s young wife A’isha illustrate what Muslims feared most about women: sexual infidelity and meddling in politics. Muhammad’s faithful first wife Khadija and his daughter Fatima are held up as models of female propriety.

Muslims were not permitted to enslave their fellow Muslims, Jews, Christians, or Zoroastrians except when taken as prisoners of war. Muslims could and did hold non-Muslim slaves.

Re-Centering

The decline of the caliphate and factionalism within deprived Islam of a religious center.

Sufi brotherhoods try to re-center individuals with Islam – use of rituals and training Whirling Dervish

Conclusion

The transition from identity based on ethnicity and localism to identity based on religion began under the Byzantines and Sasanids and culminated in the Islamic identity. Muslim identity began with Arab armies that had been personally inspired by Muhammad. Muslim identity fragmented under the Abbasid Caliphate.